Burly Goat Weizenbock | Granville Island Brewery

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User Ratings & Reviews

A: Dark copper color, slightly opaque, about two fingers of off-white head
S: Strong wheat malt aroma, very subtle fruityness and spicyness, some caramel aromas in background
T: Big, bold wheat malt flavor, the wheat malt is so strong it is hard to pick-up anything else, but you do get a little clove-spicyness that lingers, maybe even some subtle fruityness that comes out with the residual sweetness
M: Medium body, well carbonated, quite smooth and a slightly pungent, malt finish with some alcohol warmth
O: Very bold wheat malt aroma to go along with the taste, you do get the sweetness you would expect from the style, there is a noticeable hop bitterness but the wheat malt totally dominates this brew, very bold and quite good.

650ml bottle, the latest in the Black Notebook series, recipes allegedly from the brewmaster's notebook. That goat don't look burly, it just looks banged-up. Surly, maybe, but then that name might get ya sued.

This beer pours a dark, murky orange brick colour, with two fingers of puffy, tightly foamy, and somewhat bubbly tan head, which leaves some yawning cavern mouth lace around the glass as things duly sink away.

The bubbles are light and frothy, the body a sturdy medium weight, and actually quite smooth, a certain creaminess fighting to get its name heard. It finishes on the sweet side, the caramel and wheat malts not backing down, while the orange and banana fruitiness continues unabated. Ok, except maybe for the edgy alcohol, which manifests in a slightly metallic manner.

A little unbalanced seeming, the sweetness and alcohol at loggerheads, without consideration being given to a simple hop moderator. Doh. Still, drinkable enough, though I would suggest cracking this with a friend (ok, drinking buddy), as if the sugar doesn't get you, the ABV surely will.

Poured from a bomber into a weizen glass. My second crack at a beer from the Granville Island "black notebook" series and a good one for the bitterly cold weather we are experiencing right now. This brew is on the light end for a weizenbock, a cloudy yellowish brown almost like dilute rootbeer, with a vast billowing tan head that went right over the rim when I got inpatient and poured too aggressively about halfway through. I admit that the impatience was likely due to a desire to get through the experience sooner rather than later. The aroma was fine, the expected medicinal banana and clove smells popping out along with a general weizen yeastiness and some boozy rum notes. The palate was an odd combination of sweetness, spice, sour wheat malt, and aggressive astringent alcohol ... The malts were bold and dry, a nice wheaty bite but accompanied by a whole drove of phenols that included pleasant clove but also less desirable bandage and flinty mineral notes. The latter work well in some other styles but were not particularly pleasant here; sames goes for the orange rind and pine hop flavors that build on the tongue. Trying to see the merit of such aggressive hopping in a weizen but its not clicking for me this evening. Everything (malts, phenols, solvent-like booze, hops) is jagged, coarse, and medicinal, and to top it all off, the finish is bone dry, carbolic, and woody, like someone let this sit in fresh oak casks for a while. All over the map and the rich sweet complexity one gets in a German brew like Schneider Aventinus is solely lacking here. Moderate to high carbonation and quite thin; fails to coat the mouth and warms you up in a fashion that evokes pepper spray as opposed to a pleasant spicy burn. No way dudes, this one was a clear miss for me after the enticing aroma held some promise.